Posts by Joshua Hughes4

Sam Alvarez4 said:To feels more like a personal vendetta to me. People keep bringing up these "phantom" users, but there are really only about ten people involved in threads like this... and it’s always the same crowd.

There are tens of thousands of active commenters out there.
Those ten or so folks who flood these specific topics with dozens of posts—making it look like a huge group—are just venting their own personal grievances. It's nothing more than a reflection of bruised egos...

Not a great look.

Honestly, everyone should just meet up at a Starbucks, get into a massive brawl, and pull each other's hair. Then, just say goodbye and head back to the forums to debate exactly who pulled whose hair or landed the low blows...

Oh, really? So whether an injustice actually happened just depends on how many votes it gets?
If one single user gets screwed over, and nobody else complains about it, it's still an injustice.

Sam Alvarez4 said:To feels more like a personal vendetta to me. People keep bringing up these "phantom" users, but there are really only about ten people involved in threads like this... and it’s always the same crowd.

There are tens of thousands of active commenters out there.
Those ten or so folks who flood these specific topics with dozens of posts—making it look like a huge group—are just venting their own personal grievances. It's nothing more than a reflection of bruised egos...

Not a great look.

Honestly, everyone should just meet up at a Starbucks, get into a massive brawl, and pull each other's hair. Then, just say goodbye and head back to the forums to debate exactly who pulled whose hair or landed the low blows...

I'll work on being more likable. 😬

Sam Alvarez4 said:To feels more like a personal vendetta to me. People keep bringing up these "phantom" users, but there are really only about ten people involved in threads like this... and it’s always the same crowd.

There are tens of thousands of active commenters out there.
Those ten or so folks who flood these specific topics with dozens of posts—making it look like a huge group—are just venting their own personal grievances. It's nothing more than a reflection of bruised egos...

Not a great look.

Honestly, everyone should just meet up at a Starbucks, get into a massive brawl, and pull each other's hair. Then, just say goodbye and head back to the forums to debate exactly who pulled whose hair or landed the low blows...

You gonna pay for my trip from Mexico to here? 🤦 😳
🤣

Alex Watson said:You’ve got the wrong guy.

Out of nowhere, Miror started bringing up godparent stuff...

Look, if you’re such a stickler for how things should be, why didn't it bother you back when the old admin was handing out useless bans and permanent bans to some really solid users over nothing? Why didn't you step down from your role because of that kind of behavior?

Go back and read what you actually wrote. ☕

Why on earth would the admins lock a thread started by Anderlon, especially since that was supposed to be the whole vision for the new forum changes?
His whole pitch was about having admins actually serve the users—answering questions without being jerks, instead of just shutting down discussions. He wanted to make sure people who used to be active could actually participate again, without all the baggage... none of those weird background stories, nobody posing with books on shelves, no months of baseless bans, and definitely no random accusations that someone is some kind of clone. No, no, and no...☕

Alex Watson said:Well, if all this bothers you so much, how come it didn't bother you back when the former admin was uselessly banning and permabanning high-quality members over nothing, leading you to, say, step down from your position because of those kinds of actions?

Come on, Alex Watson, stop talking about things you clearly don't understand.

The former admin banned me personally, along with my entire circle, and the current admin just sat there and let it happen.
One of the few people who actually had the backbone to act like a real moderator—to say this wasn't okay and refuse to let us be persecuted on his board—was Mirror.
It’s not because he knows us, or thinks we're friends, or whatever bullshit people want to claim... it's because he was loyal to this community and actually valued the stuff we brought to the table.

I'm not going to let Mirror get dragged through the mud, especially not with these low-class insults about his personal life or where he was back in the day. He stood his ground then, and he stands it now. He was right then, and he's right now. 😍

Alex Watson said:I don't know.
I honestly don't even know how a forum this massive works.
Maybe you've got a point.

But the fact that we can even sit here and debate this without worrying about getting banned suggests things are actually looking up compared to how they used to be...

Lately, the drama on here feels like a cheap daytime soap opera. Everything starts out totally normal, then suddenly it devolves into who’s sleeping with who, who’s best friends with whom, who wants to grab coffee, who won't share pics of their kids, whose dad is tougher, who's better in bed... And to make sure there's a predictable ending—everyone just gets told their complaints are baseless, they're all just trolls, this is pointless, case closed.

How many actual appeals have been resolved lately in favor of the users?
That's if we ignore the moderator complaints and just accept the assumption that they're all invalid because we never get to see the "real story" behind them. 😬
And what about the people who specifically asked to be permabanned just so they wouldn't have to deal with the stress, only to be denied? Not a single explanation for that has ever made any sense.

There have been permabans and threats of partial bans for anyone who thought they were right, especially when admin decided the conversation was over. Same goes for those month-long, highly questionable bans where the discussion just ends because admin decides they've heard enough, regardless of whatever arguments the banned users actually had.

Daniel Ward87 said:No, it doesn't work like that. It isn't just about individual users; we also pull certain data using the tools we have available here on the site.

So, like I said, there's really no point in debating this since I've already explained why. The rest of the admin team knows the full story, and I'm not authorized to say anything more than that.

Oh, man, Ward... you drop a line like that, and then everyone acts shocked when the users swarm you with, "A-ha! Here come the forum tools! They're tracking us, spying on us, unmasking people..." while five mods jump in shouting "Paranoia!"...

I don't see why a female user shouldn't be allowed to speak her mind if she actually wants to participate, especially when she basically banned herself anyway...
You guys have the tools, so you'll react fast enough if something actually needs fixing.

What am I supposed to believe now? That someone was just playing favorites with bans, or that serious violations were caught through some secret channels and hidden tools?😵

We might end up with a situation where she left on her own, but everyone's happy she's gone and nobody would change a thing...🤷

vividtiger922 said:Week one. Total silence...

Are you still deliberating, or are you simply... indecisive? 😬

So, I’ll go ahead and restate the questions, whether they're direct or implied...

Let me run some numbers here... I want to see exactly what kind of track record one would need to accumulate to earn a six-month ban. If we set aside things like account expiration or getting banned for using accounts with longer lifespans, let's look at how many instances of insults, hate speech, blatant harassment, doxxing, and other serious violations it would actually take to justify a half-year suspension...

Six months—that’s 180 days. Or, if you prefer, sixty three-day stretches or twenty-five full weeks... It makes me wonder if this particular user has actually racked up enough violations in her entire history to warrant such a heavy-handed penalty, especially considering it's being applied based on rules that didn't even exist when she first requested the break. Then there's the fact that she’s served as a moderator on two separate occasions. It leaves me questioning how someone who was once considered constructive and decent enough to be part of the staff can suddenly become a user whose absence is framed as a "benefit" to everyone else, including herself...

Sure, you can choose whatever angle you want to highlight—that's your discretionary right, which you seem so fond of citing... but let's call things what they actually are. On one hand, there’s all this talk about supporting "active," "high-quality," and "constructive" members, yet on the other, it feels like actual content is becoming an afterthought because apparently, it's perfectly fine to sideline those exact same contributors for extended periods just because a technicality is too trivial to deal with, or perhaps simply because the administration decides they lack the patience for it at that particular moment...

Is it a six-month ban or a permanent one? 🤷

I thought I understood that it was a permanent ban and they weren't going to lift it. 🤷

We have two requests on the site from users asking to have their permanent bans lifted—bans that were issued at their own request.
How is it possible that if Hunter was told she can't get unbanned, these two users managed to get back in?

If Hunter was indeed pushing for bans at people's own requests—even though she denies it—then why wouldn't they lift her ban in a situation like that? We have a new rule now where that kind of thing isn't allowed. Is it too much to ask to let her know the rules changed so she stops trying to pull the same stunt? Surely she can grasp that much. 🤷 😬

From where I'm sitting, it looks like the ban was requested personally, but everyone is just happy she's gone. ☕

Bradley Sanders4 said:Brenda Hayes16, if the mods are the ones making the suggestions and then the users vote, how exactly would you stop moderator bias during the nomination process itself?

Look, let's be clear. I'm all for having a discussion with the subforum members before installing a new mod, but I'm totally against adding unnecessary layers of bureaucracy. We shouldn't be creating rules just to check a box, especially when the end result is just swapping one undemocratic system for another. Don't take this personally.

IIRC, unless there’s a legitimate reason to object to a candidate, that "rule" doesn't actually get used. Honestly, mod elections usually go pretty smoothly.

Are they actually smooth, or are you just guessing?
It’d be great if that were true, because it would mean people actually respect the mods and the staff on that PDF. Forum opinions are always going to be a mess anyway...
But I still don't get it—are there actually cases where someone jumps in with an 85th PDF just to block a mod from getting installed?
What kind of "legitimate reasons" would actually stop a user from becoming a mod?

I'm picturing a scenario where Mara jumps in from the health sub and blocks Zika from being a mod on the soap forums, just because way back when, Zika posted some bad medical advice as "therapy" for the users... 😵

And it wouldn't even matter that Mara doesn't even post on the soap boards, or that Zika already convinced the mods he's constructive and will be a massive help with their workload... 😵

I still don't see why I feel the need to read every single thing on this forum... 🙂

rustydrifter10 said:We reached out to them, and they mentioned they're already on it, working to get everything squared away. I don't have all the specifics just yet, though.

If he handles this the same way Sascha handled that last mess, we’re looking at some seriously dark stuff... 😁

Basically, he's saying you can't exactly pay the rent just by hanging out on this forum. ☕

He probably landed some new gig, so now he's grinding all day without any internet access. 🤷 🙏

Elizabeth Anderson63 said:Look, if prisoners get parole, why shouldn't forum users? Just give him a probationary period. You can always toss him into the ban corner if he starts acting up again... and honestly, I don't think he will. 🤷

Obviously, this doesn't apply to the people who were being straight-up abusive, making threats, and all that crap. Send them an abuse report immediately. 🙂

Yeah, well, I bet they're digging for insults right now, but they won't find anything. Every single one of his alt accounts gets banned just like the original permanent ban, for no reason at all... 🤷

But seriously, what about the other side that was tearing users apart? 😉
Are they getting the abuse reports too? ☕

Maybe this guy is just another example of someone getting banned unfairly.
I’ve chatted with Smith before, and honestly, I don't recall him ever being abusive toward anyone here. 🤷

Word is he got hit because he supposedly insulted some BB participants. 🙏 🤣

But look, it’s just not right. It’s going to cause a massive backlash. We're looking at a situation where a mod just swoops in out of nowhere and bans a clone who was actually being chill and having decent conversations in the off-topic section—all because they happen to be a clone of someone permanently banned.

And let's not forget that whole dramatic scene in the mod corner: "Here he is, shoot him! I'll do it, you do it, hold him down... he's ours now."

I get it, clones aren't allowed. But there really should be some unspoken rule about letting people back in if they've genuinely learned their lesson and are behaving perfectly fine without breaking any rules... especially when they clearly care this much about being part of the community. 🤷

Nicholas King said:Send me pics of boobs with thank-you notes written on them via DM. 🥳

😍

I could just chop 'em off and put 'em in a jar for you... 🤷

🤣

Anyway, I'm done for now. Heading out to dig some holes around the lemon tree so we actually have somewhere to sit if you show up. 🙂

Big thanks to all the "Z-Squad" for making my two years on this forum actually tolerable. Without them, I’d probably still be rotting away in my boring-ass daily routine.

Thanks to the late, great Missy for keeping me glued to my screen, day and night.
Thanks to Parac for absolutely killing Jaffu for me.

And thanks for helping me get Lily up and running.

Thanks, Wilbald, for everything.

Thanks to Oblici for those wild, sleepless nights and for fixing all my cluelessness when it came to how this forum works.

Thanks to ef1 for the crew, the chaos, and the service.

Thanks to trnje for the kind words and every perfect summary.
Thanks to MO (I'll remember who you are and edit this later)
Thanks to all the other regulars, Čikolica, Steven Reed, Killian, KO...

everyone.

Thanks for not being total weeds.
__________________
zidić, going crazy 👋
weeds, stop!

Dusting off some old forum nostalgia. 🤣

Elizabeth Anderson63 said:it's just more of the same old junk...

This is some ancient history, and that username is clearly just a cheap knockoff of Lilijana.
If anyone deserves a clean slate, it's Lilijana, because this person is nothing but a boring 😍 clone.

As far as I'm concerned, let them stay banned. Let them rest in peace... 😬

Thanks! 🙂

Zidić 👋

Thanks, Mike! 👋

😍😍

coppergardener said:hey there.

Glad nobody asked for my birth certificate... some people would’ve had a massive meltdown if they realized I’m not actually an American patriot. 🤦

thanks!

🙄

Look, I’ll happily upload my birth certificate if that’s what it takes.
But let’s be real, your post was pure malice.
You didn't just miss the mark on the topic, the file format, or this forum... you missed the mark on the whole damn country.
Honestly, you deserve a partial ban on this site. People have been kicked off here for way less than this...
What's actually scary is seeing the mods patting you on the back and praising your "wit."

And yeah, those same mothers won't be saying "good morning" to you tomorrow, or ever again.
Next time, maybe think twice before trying to pull teeth without any anesthesia...🙂

quietdriver said:I get it, but those threads always end up getting buried under endless political debates, old-school partisans, extremists... stuff I just can't be bothered with.
It’d be better if current events had their own dedicated space.

The idea isn't bad, but there's a catch. If you want news on the forum before it hits major sites like CNN or Fox, who’s actually going to fact-check it?
What happens when fake news starts popping up in a thread? After a few times, nobody's gonna believe any "breaking" rumor they see here.
How would you even moderate that mess?
Basically, we’re back to waiting for a real outlet to report it just to make sure it's legit. And by then, it’ll already have found its way onto the forums anyway.
Seems like a massive headache to me... 🤷

Gregory Garcia said:Look—after everything that’s been read and written here, the honest truth is that the thread wasn't taken down because of that specific post, but rather because of you guys in the moderation crew.

Once you finally wrap your head around that, maybe it'll make sense why I've spent so much time—clearly to no avail, I suppose—writing all this stuff here.

It's pretty obvious you think my posts are just mindless rambling, since you haven't actually acknowledged a single point I've made; instead, you just go straight for the jugular, calling me names like Nazi or sick...

Anyway, take care. 👋

The thread wasn't deleted because of the banned group; the group got banned after the thread was deleted. And it was a permanent ban for four women on the forum. Let's not twist the facts.

Your writing isn't nonsense, and thanks for even bothering to chime in. Honestly, I think a lot of people would join in, but they don't want the drama or the headache, and some just don't see the point anymore...
Opinions vary, but that's why we're here—to outsmart each other, whoever does it better. That's what a forum is for.
Sure, you're being a bit sketchy claiming you aren't up to speed on what's happening over at ZiDic, but whatever. Maybe one day you'll actually sit down at ZiDic and grab a beer... 🙂

Gregory Garcia said:Angela Edwards4, what you’re bringing up here—honestly, it just isn't a valid reason, and I think we can all agree on that. It really isn't. This:

You tell me:
Is it just me, or is it totally normal to feel this sudden, intense urge to jump into a discussion the moment you stumble upon an interesting topic? I’m talking about those posts that really grab you—whether they’re something incredibly positive that lifts your mood, or something totally negative that just gets under your skin—where you immediately think, "Okay, I have thoughts on this." I guess I wonder if everyone else experiences that same impulse to participate, or if it's just my own way of processing things. Maybe it's just a desire to connect, or perhaps it's just that itch to weigh in when something actually catches my eye... what do you guys think?
Is it just me, or does anyone else feel that weirdly intense urge to jump into a heated online debate—especially when you see someone making a point that perfectly mirrors your own—just to let them know they aren't alone in their thinking? I mean, when you see a thread where someone is getting absolutely grilled, but you find yourself nodding along with every word they say, it’s almost hard to resist the impulse to chime in and basically say, "Hey, I'm right there with you." It feels like this sudden, almost instinctive desire to offer some solidarity and show that their perspective isn't just some isolated outlier, but actually shared by others. Is that... I don't know, normal? Or am I just overthinking the whole social dynamic of internet arguments?
Is it actually normal to sit there at your computer and hash everything out in your own little chat room—you know, like your own personal digital living room?

The Democratic Party claims that this is just how things work—that everything described here is perfectly normal and totally fine. And then...

And now:
Well, I guess you could say that the people in the local zoning departments—those types who always seem to be looking for a fight—don't usually complain when they end up getting handed a penalty like this. They said exactly what was on their minds, didn't they? In my opinion, they basically got exactly what they deserved—it’s just the natural consequence of speaking their truth without any filter.
-

I mean, honestly—it’s just typical of those little Wall Street types to act like that. In principle, I don't think anyone ever really complains when they get handed cards like these—it’s just how things tend to go, I guess. If you look at the patterns here—and I really think you have to—it becomes pretty clear that this wasn't just some one-off fluke or an isolated incident. It feels more like a recurring theme, doesn't it? To me, it looks like something that has happened multiple times before, almost like a cycle that keeps repeating itself.
I mean, from what I've gathered—and I could be wrong here, mind you—it seems like the mods started acting this way toward them specifically because they... Well, someone went ahead and nuked an entire thread—just like that. Honestly, it just doesn't hold water—it’s that simple. 😉 Because this has never once happened in the entire history of this Reddit community—getting a permanent ban just because of a single thread—it’s pretty clear that there's always been a reason behind it. I mean, I guess it's always been about the underlying issues rather than just one isolated post. It really feels like we’re just seeing the same patterns over and over again—it's almost like déjà vu at this point. I can't help but wonder if we're stuck in some kind of loop where history just keeps repeating itself, regardless of how much we think we've progressed. It’s a bit exhausting, honestly, to watch the same mistakes happen under different names. Maybe I'm being a bit cynical, but there's definitely a sense of repetition here that's hard to ignore. Look, we’re seeing some rule-breaking here. I’ve been around this community for a little while now—long enough to know how things usually go down—so I have a decent sense of the landscape. 🙂

Yeah, right. Everyone here has different interests and different impulses. If we all wrote politely, calmly, and kept our cool like you do, we wouldn't even need moderators.

Nobody got a perm ban just for trashing a thread. Period.

They haven't been around any longer than the users who got banned. 🙂

@Gregory Garcia,
everything you said makes sense, but you clearly weren't paying attention in class because you completely missed the point here.

Permanent bans are all sorted out over in the banned corner.
@parachutes had over 10,000 posts and got slapped with a permanent ban in the banned corner. You really think someone with 10,000 posts was just out there causing chaos? Every single one of her posts had her personal touch, and she took every punishment like a champ. She just ran into a moderator who was having a bad day—someone who was already being pressured by everyone else on the other side at that exact moment. It was just a bunch of lowlifes, bottom-feeders, and total trash...
@oblica- first they announced she was just a clone of some permanently banned user, questioning her whole identity. Once they realized that wasn't true, they claimed she was just borrowing the handle of a banned user...
@jaffa- permanent ban on the original handle, reason: "annoying clone."
@misseducata- Man, you could write about this until tomorrow, but you still wouldn't get it, since none of us ever did.
Just pure absurdity from start to finish, but whatever...